 
Location: The Kingdom of Heaven | A COURSE IN MIRACLES
STUDY GROUP WITH RAJ . Good evening. And welcome to everyone who’s joining us on the Internet. Well, for all practical purposes it is the last day of the year. Tomorrow is New Year’s day . . . a day when many do their best to turn over a new leaf or make commitments to change habits. Well, in a way that’s what we’re talking about all the time, isn’t it. But I’m going to invite you all to re-listen to or re-read the transcript of meeting last week, the Christmas Message because it's simple, so simple. And then I would invite you to let the Meaning of that accompany you as you move into the New Year. Love one another. I’m re-emphasizing that again this week and for the coming year because I will tell you, it is the one transforming element that is called for in order for Awakening to occur. Love one another. I went into some detail about abandoning your perceptions of your Brother or your Sister and your perceptions of yourself. Abandon whatever limited, demeaning insulting definitions you have applied to yourself or others because they do not fit you, you holy Son or Daughter of God. What do I do every week? I love you by reminding you not of your sins, but of your holiness. And I do that so that the very concept of holiness becomes less and less foreign to you, as relates to you. And in this way, you more and more easily embrace the idea, which is actually the divine fact that you are the direct expression of God. You are His beloved Son or Daughter in whom He is well pleased because you are not other than Himself/Herself expressed and expressing. Now when you are engaged in loving one another, you’re not engaged in fault-finding. You’re not even engaged in correcting one’s faults. You’re engaged in asking the Father, “What is the truth about my Brother, what is the truth about my Sister – the God’s honest truth about them – the truth about what is Real about them, not the truth about why they have such a negative impression of themselves, or why I have such a negative impression of them.” No one needs to listen to a long litany of mistakes that you have made or that others have made in order to understand why they are confused and behaving badly, because in that, there is no inspiration, there is no realization . . . there is no Revelation. There is nothing to take what is being experienced to another level where confusion is not governing and where, thereby, vision clears and the good news -- the Truth about your Brothers or about yourself -- registers with you and registers with them, releasing them from the bondage of your and their false perceptions. Now after everything I said last week, the question could arise, “Yes, but when something needs to be corrected, how do you correct it?” When Moses came back down from the mountain the second time and the people were still practicing their faithlessness, he was not moved by it this time. He did not believe their unbelief. He did not join them. And one could say, “Well, if he didn’t correct them, how did he change the situation?”
Well first of all, I want to point out that the Commandments that he came down with all dealt with the poor activities that they were engaged in as a result of their faithlessness, all of which had to do with having false gods and not relating to each other with love, but rather with usury and lasciviousness and negativity. And although Moses threw the tablets down the first time, he held onto them the second time. And he did not hit them over the head with the tablets. The tablets, more than being Commandments that perhaps uncovered the inappropriateness of everyone’s behavior, more than that, they were the evidence of an element that had been missing, that the people had lost sight of. And that was that they were not alone. God was still with them. You see? What did Moses do to change them? Well he didn’t address what they were doing. By listening, by going up into the mountain top, hearing and experiencing the Vision provided and coming back down and holding onto It, his presence and his actions revealed more clearly than anything else, that everyone was still loved and companioned with, and their loss of faith was baseless. You see? He did not come down and rail at them about this bad behavior and that bad behavior and what an awful kind of person it made them. He came down evidencing the fact that they were accompanied still by the Father. They were not alone. You see? The answer was something entirely different from any act of correction of any particular behavior. And this is what it is so important to understand. Now, oh . . . it could seem, and I mean this not just for this day and age, because what I’m going to describe has been going on forever, but it could seem that because of the unscrupulous nature of the ego, that it would be wise to be constantly on the watch for evil so that it can be ferreted out and gotten rid of, so it will not spoil everything like the one apple that will spoil the barrel. And so one can justify becoming a watchdog, as it were, always on the alert for evil, always on the alert for the opportunity to correct a mistake. Well, that can get you into trouble. It’s like a child, upon learning that there really isn’t a Santa Claus, going through the first Christmas after learning that, making sure to tell everybody that there is no Santa Claus. And when everybody is opening up the presents and they’re so happy, he says, “But there is no Santa Claus!” Who turns the day into a wretched day for himself by his constant rehearsal of what he thinks is the truth, as though it’s important to know that. And yet in the ensuing year before the next Christmas, that child realizes that it didn’t matter whether Santa had ever been real, because what made the day outstanding was the love and the caring and the thoughtfulness put into giving and shared with all of the members of the family and friends. And that was real. And that was what made the day special. And so there was no need to make pronouncements of the truth that there is no Santa Claus. Just as there is no need to be a constant watchdog for evil so that you can find it and get rid of it quickly. And somebody says, “Yeah, but what do you do about evil?” Well it’s the wrong question. You don’t do anything about the evil that you see. You do something about the way you are seeing.
Earlier on in the Course, we spent quite a bit of time discussing the fact that your attention activates the sending out of messengers, messengers that go out to find and return to you with confirmation of whatever it is you are wishing to see. And so if you are wishing to see evil, the messengers that go out with you have that task, that is their charge and you can count on it, they will come back with confirmation of it whether it’s truly there or not. And so you must understand that you are responsible for what you see just as Moses was. Moses wised up so that when he came down the second time, the messengers that were sent out looked for confirmation of those who were quite capable of understanding the Commandments and a feeling that they were not alone — that they were loved.
And how do you suppose he rallied them to move forward? Not by making an issue out of their behavior. You can imagine that he might have said, “Okay everybody, now that we have this security in terms of a code of behavior that supports and nurtures and values the human being, let’s pack up the golden calf and let’s pack up the pots and pans and the tents and let’s move on because the Father is leading us to the Promised Land. The absence of judgment from Moses and the clarity as to a Vision of direction was all that was needed for everyone to rally and move forward. You see?
Gee, heaven help the watchdog who’s going to find the tares and the wheat, who happens one Spring to head from Los Angeles to New York through the plains states, who drives for hours through fields of wheat that might have tares in them so that he must stop at every one and check and root them out when it’s almost impossible to distinguish which is which at that point, . . but oh-h, he’s doing a great work. No. You don’t try to separate the tares from the wheat until it’s time for the harvest and you can easily see which are which or even if there are none. You see?
You can waste your whole year this coming year trying to find error, trying to find evil, exposing it and trying your best to get rid of it through the use of one form of force or another. Now that’s the equivalent, I’m going to say, of having lived in an orphanage where there are codes of behavior, mutual agreements that have been established that everybody abides by and everyone controls each other with and usury and abuse and manipulation goes on constantly because everyone is jockeying for a better position either in the social order or to be able to shift to a room on a higher floor with a better view or whatever. And one happens to humbly reach out for help beyond the agreed upon code of conduct and Guidance is experienced and a different perspective is provided.
The simple fact is, that the different perspective, because it reflects the Father’s Will and the Father’s Intent and because it reflects what is Real when embraced by the one listening, causes his perspective to change . . . moves him to a new vantage point that no longer elicits the responses from his fellow orphans that had occurred before and he becomes inspirational. And he doesn’t have to call anyone down or criticize them or bully them into changing their behavior, because it’s easy for them to catch the Vision, to catch the feeling and join in a new perspective. Again, healing does not occur because a more powerful truth has been obtained that is capable of overwhelming the illusion that seems to be real. Healing occurs because the intent to see what isn’t real is abandoned. The messengers are no longer being sent out. The intention is not looking for fault, is not looking for error, is not looking for evil and so the conformation of evil ceases to come back.
The enemy doesn’t need to be coerced into a new behavior because the enemy by virtue of being Loved from the Father’s Vantage point through you is relieved. Defense is no longer called for. What a relief! And how wonderful to be able to dare to be genuinely Real instead of constantly abiding according to the code of conduct – the mutually-agreed-upon-definitions for behavior. You see? Again, whether it’s an illness, a disease, a bad attitude, a belief that one is a mortal and that death is inevitable, these things vanish when you dare to love one another, and by virtue of loving one another, send out new messengers.
It’s a fact. A change of heart, as it were, can spontaneously cause a change in behavior in someone who has been aggressively and negatively abusive to you. Why? Because you’re not sending out the messengers of fear, looking for that which is fearful. And your faith in your brother, rather than faithlessness, inspires your brother. And so you say, “Well, what if it doesn’t?” And I must ask you, “What side of the fence are you choosing to stand on? What are you fighting for?” because you will surely have what you fight for. If you cannot conceive that your Brother or Sister might actually be as holy as you are beginning to believe you are, then the messages to that affect will be what you send out and they cannot come back and confirm something other than the intent with which you sent them.
Rather than asking “What if they don’t change?” you need to be asking, “What is the means of my going back to the mountain top . . . what is the means of my engaging in the two-step genuinely enough and committedly enough to persist in giving my attention to the truth that will make a difference? You see? Your attention will not be on your brother and what he’s doing. Your attention will be on where you are giving your attention and what you are desiring and whether you are willing to say that your brother is worthy of the amount of time or effort or commitment that it takes to stay on the mountain top or to return as many times as necessary in order to get the message again and bring it down from the mountain and not abandon it yourself. You see?
Yes, occasions arise when bad behavior occurs. But God didn’t send you here to put the one engaged in bad behavior up on a cross and crucify him. That’s not what you’re here for. You’re here to learn how to be your Father’s Son or Daughter. You’re here to look at your Brother or Sister with the desire to learn what there is about them that causes your Father to be greatly pleased with them. That Vision immediately constitutes the broadcast, the sending out of new messengers which necessarily must come back, and do come back with conformation of what they were sent to find. What your Brothers and Sisters seem to be to you or to themselves isn’t what they Are. But as long as you believe it is what they are you will have the evidence of it. Is that because you’re causing it? No! But it is because you are not doing what is essential to uncover anything else.
And so it’s not the correcting of someone that’s important, it’s the uncovering of Something else other than that which calls for correction. It’s the uncovering of their holiness, because that’s what you wish to see more than anything. And why do you wish to see it? Ah-h . . . because it heals . . . because it is the practice of Love. Be alert to what goes on in your own mind. Be alert to judgment that you feel is valid.
You know, the recognition of the holiness of your brother is not a judgment. The ability to acknowledge Reality, the Kingdom of Heaven right here as It is, is not a result of judgment. They are both the result of the abandonment of judgment, the abandonment of reasoning that leads from point A, to point B, to point C and so on. So that you are not engaged in the examination of the function of your intelligence, but you are in touch with your Brother or Sister directly, intimately, wholly. You see? This is the key. It’s not the watchdogs. Your governments have watchdogs and they’re called the Armed Forces, and they find evil and they squash it with force, although there is beginning to be a more concerted effort, as they say, to deal with things diplomatically. It’s a step in the right direction, but reason is still the basis for the negotiation, rather than the valuing of the holy Brothers and Sisters, the holy Sons and Daughters of God that constitute mankind and the desire to make peace not war.
So there is still further to go, but it all boils down to what I’m telling you tonight . . . Love one another. Instead of asking, “What do we do to correct them?” You must ask, “What do I do Father, to love my brothers and sisters? Reveal to me their holiness so that I might feel it, not so that I might understand it with my mind, my intellect. Let me feel their holiness. I’m told that when I feel their holiness I get to feel mine as well. How do I hang in here, without joining them by becoming frustrated? How do I hang in with the Vision and stay on the mountain top?” You see? One of what you call “the Beatitudes” says, “Blessed are the” . . . what? “peacemakers.” Not the watchdogs. Not the ones ferreting out evil. Not the ones checking every wheat field for tares and trampling the good wheat. No. “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the Children of God.1” Well, we can reverse that, “Blessed are the Children of God for they shall be peacemakers.” You holy Sons and Daughters of God, turn to the Father, turn to the Holy Spirit, desiring to recognize and feel the holiness of the other Children of God called your Brothers and Sisters.
Another of the Beatitudes says, “Blessed are the meek,” not the warmongers. “Blessed are the meek,” not the aggressors. “Blessed are the meek,” those who let love motivate the messengers they send out. “Blessed are they for they shall,” . . what? “inherit the Earth.” They will find themselves having what “It is the Father’s good pleasure to give them, which is the Kingdom.2” That’s the way healing occurs. If you want to call it correction, that’s the way correction occurs, because when you are meek, you inherit what it’s the Father’s good pleasure to give you . . . all of the Kingdom. And you will be peacemakers and be called the Children of God, because that is what you Are. And that transforms because you move your attention out of the realm of “accuser,” of “watchdog for evil,” of dishonesty. You abandon that mindset. And in abandoning it, you withdraw the messengers that will go out bringing back confirmation even though what they find isn’t so, because it’s no part of the Kingdom that it’s the Father’s good pleasure to give you. You see? You won’t have the Kingdom until you are willing to let yourself be the Son or Daughter of God by asking for His Perspective. You certainly won’t have it by manipulating your world by force into what looks like peace and harmony.
Love one another. Find the way to love one another even if the behavior of others seems to convince you that you should be upset. Love one another enough to silence the human will in you that insists upon seeing what it’s seeing, and turn to the Holy Spirit or the Father asking, “What is the truth here?” and then staying with that Vision. And if you lose it, go back to the mountain top. And if you lose it, go back to the mountain top. And if you lose it again, go back to the mountain top. Because like the Israelites, you are accompanied by the Father and the Holy Spirit and your Guide and all those who are already Awake. You are not alone. Enjoy your Brotherhood this year. Love one another. I love you. And I look forward to being with you next time.
A Course In Miracles (reference pages) Raj did not read from the book tonight
1Bible: Matthew 5:9
The Beatitudes start at Matthew 5:3
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A Course in Miracles Study Group with Raj, December 30th 2013
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TRANSCRIPT & AUDIO 12-30-2013
General Discussion -> Transcripts & Audio 2013-2014
